Baxter Ewers (SSB18)
Baxter Ewers (バクスター・エワーズ Baxter Ewers) is a playable character in Super Smash Bros. OC 2018. He's the tenth third-party character in the game. Attributes Baxter Ewers's gameplay is very similar to 's. Baxter Ewers is a lightweight type of character who performs many tools and mobility in his playstyle, he can effectively fight on the ground, but not too well in the air. He also has one of the best punish out of shield options in his game. His ground game has him have very fast side steps and rolls which is one of the fastest in the game. His fast air dodge in the air allows him to avoid situations that can KO him early. Baxter Ewers's greatest strength comes from his ground game. He possesses one of the fastest set of ground attacks. This makes Baxter Ewers's ground game immensely useful and hence forces his opponents to play very cautiously. Additionally, all of his ground moves are highly damaging, making it easy for him to bring opponents at KO percents. His Jab (when tapped), Side Tilt, Up Tilt and Down Tilt are great combo starters, with his down tilt being especially effective due to its vertical launching angle and low knockback scaling allowing it to combo into any move except his back aerial and down aerial. Altogether, these moves grant him a very fast and unique ground combo game. The speed of Baxter Ewers's tilt attacks are quick that can allow him to perform out of shield punishments by pressuring his opponent to keep their shield up while whittling down its health. However, if this is not possible to do in a given situation, the speed can instead initiate shield stabbing on many characters, with a prominent example being . In addition to their strength, Baxter Ewers's grounded attacks are nearly impossible to interrupt. His neutral attack and tilt attacks have a unique priority property that makes clanking with another move impossible, otherwise known as anti-rebounding attacks. What this means is that when an opponent's attack within priority range clanks with one of these attacks, Baxter Ewers's move will continue uninterrupted while the opponent's move not only cancels out, but also results in them suffering from lag relative to how powerful the attack they used was. However, this only applies to grounded attacks. With this level of priority, He can take advantage of the opponent's more powerful attacks, putting them in large amounts of lag while allowing Baxter Ewers to punish immediately due to the low ending lag of his neutral attack and tilts. Besides these, his smash attacks are also difficult to interrupt as well. While they follow standard rules of priority, they have launch resistance during start-up to the end of the final hitbox, making them impossible to interrupt during this period of time. All these factors make Baxter Ewers arguably the hardest opponent to deal with on the ground. Baxter Ewers's special moveset also has some unique options. Cross Punch can be long-ranged, boasts very high power and grants damage-based launch resistance, allowing him to tank low damage hits and retaliate immediately after. It can also be used to escape some weak multiple hit moves. Jumping Overhand Punch is a strong attack that travels far, can be unleashed on command and grants intangibility during start-up, making it ideal for tech-chasing, re-positioning, and escaping/punishing laggier moves. Despite this, it should not be used excessively, as this move does not stop at an edge upon performing it, therefore leading to an inevitable self-destruct if used near an edge. Superman Uppercut is a spiraling uppercut that covers fairly long vertical distance and grants brief intangibility upon start-up, making it Baxter Ewers's most reliable aerial finisher and a very good out of shield option. It is useful as a deadly combo finisher due to its exceptional knockback, along with its ability to combo from an up-tilt and down/up throws. It additionally boasts extremely fast start-up, allowing Him to use it out of even the smallest pause between an opponent's combos to potentially turn the tides. Counter Strike is a highly damaging counterattack that is fully invincible during the counterattack. Aside from being great for escaping pressure (especially aerial combos), it is the overall fastest counter in the game, as well as the only one that can come out on frame 4. Despite Baxter Ewers's greatest strengths, he has some weaknesses: The most serious and notorious of the two is his recovery. As mentioned earlier, Baxter Ewers's aerial mobility significantly hinders him, with his horizontal survivability being one of, if not the, shortest among the cast, along with his aerial mobility being unarguably one of the most unrewarding among the entire cast. His fast falling speed makes meteor smashes, semi-spikes and even footstool jumps capable of almost instantaneously gimping him, even at 0%, especially if he has no double jump. His special moves also receive drastic downgrades when used in the air, further worsening his aerial performance. Cross Punch loses its long distance and high power, to the point where it can never KO even well beyond 150%. Aerial Cross Punch also suffers from drastically higher ending lag, to the point where one could jump from the edge of a stage and use it, and would not be able to recover afterward. Jumping Overhand Punch loses half of its momentum and start-up intangibility, Superman Uppercut loses half of its distance, Counter Strike loses its invincibility, to the point that it only KOs around 150%. He also suffers from an infamously air game, having low jumps and a bad recovery in the game. He can get easily gimped off the stage by characters who can edge guard as well. Finally, he lacks a projectile and is vulnerable to projectile camping and characters who have a projectile. Moveset On-screen appearance *Calmly walks into the stage saying "Let's go...". Taunts *Up: Sighs and stretching his arm forward. *Side: Cracks his knuckles smirking. *Down: Crosses his arms looking away then back. Idle poses *Stretches his back. *Adjusts Glasses Victory poses *Jabs twice before striking a pose *Slowly puts on his glasses saying "It's only you who went down!" *Kicks twice and crosses arms. Trophies Palette Swaps / Alternate Costumes Trivia